Recipe Source: Oakley Rhodes of Lemonbasil. Find the original recipe here.
My husband and I decorated our Christmas tree last Sunday. In many families this is traditionally done within the family, sometimes just within the nuclear family. With us, we try to open it up to friends who may not ordinarily get to decorate a tree at all or who just feel like coming by and eating. When I was planning the tree-decorating meal, I came across this recipe on the blog Lemonbasil. It looked perfect for what I needed - healthy, different, exciting. One of the things I liked best about it was the fact that it included the cauliflower leaves, reducing waste and adding an interesting color to the finished dish.
I decreased the recipe - the original served something like 16 people, and while one of the other side dishes did fall through (worms in the celery root did not meet one guest's "fleshless" requirement, nor did it meet my "wormless" requirement), we still didn't need enough cauliflower for 16 people. I used the full amount of garlic, though, because you never know when you might have to keep vampires at bay. I didn't slice the garlic into chips, either - since it was all getting pureed, I didn't see a point. I do think that leaving it just crushed caused it to keep its bite a little more, which I like, but if you prefer mellower garlic you should absolutely slice the garlic.
The major change I made, though, was not the garlic. I made the dish ahead of time, intending to finish it off with the butter and nutmeg right before serving. Well, I don't know if it's the result of sitting for a couple of hours or the amount of liquid in my garlic, but the consistency was more like a soup than a puree. It was really waterlogged and not very pretty at all. I pondered what to do - I didn't have time to run out and throw together a salad, even if the dog could have been trusted not to lick everything on the counter while I was gone. Then I was struck by inspiration. I had some cheese left over from another recipe - a moderately sharp Cheddar from Vermont, already grated in preparation for the other recipe. I threw about two ounces of cheese in just after taking the puree off the heat. The residual heat melted the cheese completely. My textural problems were solved. The sharpness of the cheddar was a nice compliment to the bite of the garlic.
The result was success. In the words of one guest, who is not known for his fondness of cauliflower, "Cauliflower tastes better when it's pureed." Thanks to Oakley for the recipe!
